Muhamad Mer'i, victim, aged 35, paramedic

At the Taninim checkpoint, the soldiers checked our papers, searched the ambulance and let us through. We got to the Hamra checkpoint where there were many cars. As per usual, I bypassed the line and stood behind a car for about five minutes until one of the soldiers called me. It was 4:30 P.M.

The soldier motioned me to come forward. He ordered a taxi to drive off and me to take its place. When I stopped, the soldier looked inside the car and told the other two who were with him: "It's him." We had run into this same soldier two days earlier, on Tuesday, January 14, and he held us up and wouldn't let us pass. We had to call the Red Cross then to get through.

The soldier started to laugh. He told me to get out and ordered Hassan and Samer to move away from the ambulance. After I got out, he told me to take everything out of the ambulance. He said: "Where's the Red Cross now? Come on, take it all out of the ambulance." I asked him what he meant when he said 'Where's the Red Cross now?' He told me to shut up. He then asked where the walkie-talkie was. I said it was in the ambulance and he took it. He also took my cell phone. He said: "Shut up, coward," pushed me and said: "Come on, quickly, you've got five minutes."

I emptied out the shelves and cabinets onto the ambulance floor. The soldier wouldn't let me leave anything in its place. Every time I asked a question he screamed and cursed: "Son of a bitch," "Bastard" and other expressions I didn't know. Within five minutes everything that was in the ambulance was on the floor.

In the ambulance there was a bag with clothes in it. He made me open it and empty it out. I did as he said. Then he asked about a device that's used for sucking fluids from the nose. He demanded I take it apart. I said I couldn't because it was fixed to the floor. He responded by hitting me on the back of the neck and kept swearing. I asked him to call an officer. I told him I couldn't take the device apart and that if he wanted he could do it himself. I asked him: "Why did you hit me and swear at me?" He yelled at me to shut up and ordered me to dismantle a seat. I was feeling dizzy and my head hurt. I demanded they call a doctor. He waved his gun at me and insisted I take apart the seat. I tried explaining that the seat was fixed to the floor. I lifted the board that was on the seat and told the soldier he could look inside himself. Eventually I did as he had asked and took off the seat cover.

At that point, the soldier demanded I take the stretchers out and put them on the road. I took down one of the stretchers and said I wanted a doctor. My head hurt. He said: "What do you want?" I told him: "Call a doctor." He said: "You could die for all I care." He then looked into the ambulance and saw an oxygen tank. I told him it was oxygen. He told me to take it apart and put it on the ground. I said I couldn't do it because it was tied down and it takes another person and special tools to take it down. He yelled and cursed again. After he saw it was impossible to take it apart, he asked about the spare tire. I showed it to him and he demanded I take it out, get a jack, lift the vehicle and change one of the tires. He was laughing the whole time, swearing and pushing. He said I had five minutes and if I didn't do it on time, I would die.

I started working on getting the spare tire out and my pain got worse. I asked for a doctor. He got up and slapped me. I realized I was in danger. I stopped working on the spare tire and felt dizzy. I screamed I wanted a doctor. Two soldiers approached. One of them said to the other: "I'll hit him on the stomach and you get the waist." The third soldier put the gun to my head and they started beating me. I yelled and asked them to get an officer. The soldier said: "I am an officer." They kept beating me in the face and stomach. When I realized the situation wasn't going to change, I said I wanted one of my colleagues to help me. They refused.

I kept working on the spare tire. When I was about to finish, he hit me on the back of the neck. I fell down and started shouting. The soldier told me to stop screaming. I felt I was losing consciousness and I don't know what happened next.

Hassan told me that an officer came and later an army doctor came too. He told the officer I needed to get to a hospital. I was told the soldiers made Hassan drive, even though he doesn't have a license and doesn't know how to drive. I was also told that Hassan told all this to the soldiers, but they demanded he drive the ambulance and get it out of the checkpoint. I got into the Jenin hospital at 10:00 P.M. I spent the night there and was released the next day. The doctors told me to take three days off and to appear before the medical board.

Muhamad 'Ali Hassan Mer'i, aged 35, is married and the father of seven. He works as a paramedic and a resident of Jenin. The testimony was taken by 'Atef Abu a-Rub in Jenin, 26 January, 2003.